Le Fat: Shaking the Beef Right

Warning:  The following may not be suitable for children under the age of 13 or those who think Colonel Kurtz is a fair representation of Vietnam

The Westside of Atlanta is exploding with great cuisine.  Guy Wong's Le Fat is the perfect addition to the hot restaurant scene in my hood.  We were lacking some great and unique Asian Cuisine and Le Fat did not disappoint.

Vietnamese food is, by far, the most underrated of Asian foods.  And you have probably had it, but didn't even know it.  My lovely wife, who is not an adventurous eater, was in France and thought she was having the best Chinese meal of her life only to find out it was Vietnamese.  Sometimes greatness is truly discovered accidentally.

 Vietnamese do appetizers very well and Le Fat had them in spades.

The Salt and Pepper Calamari was delicious.  It was lightly fried and their mix of spices was perfect.

Soft Shell Crab with Bacon on a Sweet Bun?  Yes, Yes and Yes.  Three of my favorite things that I never thought about putting together!  It's like Maryland meets Redneck in Chinatown.  I'm not sure if that made any sense, but stay with me.

The Goi Cuon Summer Roll's were good.  It's tough to screw these up.  And the peanut sauce was good as well.

The Cha Gio, Crispy Spring Roll's were probably the MVP's of the app's.  I just had these a few weeks ago at the world famous Vietnamese Restaurant, The Slanted Door in San Francisco and these were every bite as good (play on words intentional).  And the sauce is good enough to drink.  Seriously.

The overall MVP of the night was the Bo Luc Lac, the "Shaking Beef."  Outside of it being low hanging fruit for sophomoric jokes (guilty), it was absolutely delicious.  I could eat this dish again and again.  It's so good, it's going to make it hard for me to return and order anything else.

The Dry Rub 4 gives Le Fat the highest of marks.  It was a wonderful meal with OUTSTANDING service and it is a place I will definitely return too.  The only drawback was the acoustics.  It was hard to carry on a conversation at times because of the noise.  But don't let that stop you!  And of course we enjoyed our Falcor Wine.  Still waiting for my royalties for drinking their wine at every meal.

Pound for Pound, I would put Le Fat in the company of the aforementioned Slanted Door.  I think they need a broiled whole fish dish, but I'm sure that will follow eventually.  They had a fried one that was good, but the branzino is much better naked.

If you are ever in Napa, do a Falcor lunch as my wife and I did last month.  The food and service is outstanding and the wine and company are even better.

Today's Footnote:

If Vietnamese Food is the underrated Asian Food.  New Edition has to be the most underrated group in Pop Music/ R&B, right?

Apparently they built their own concert apparatuses

They were thought of as a Poor Mans Jackson 5 at the time.  But they held there own and of course after their impending break up their tentacles reached long and far.

Timing wise they were just on the tail end of the "Soul Glow" hair era

Bobby Brown and Bell Biv Devoe became megastars and Johnny Gill and Ralph Tresvant more than held their own in their solo careers.  Okay, maybe megastar is reaching just a tad, but Bobby did marry Whitney........

Name another R&B band that had 4 successful solo acts?  Definitely not the Jackson 5 (sorry Jermaine).

The only one I can think of is in Rock and that is the Eagles.  And that takes it to a whole other level.

This thought came to me because I was corresponding with a high school friend who was just diagnosed with Breast Cancer and it hit me harder than I thought it would.  And every time I hear BBD I think of her.  So hug your loved ones a little closer tonight.  Life is all to short.